Partnering with QCOSS (peak body for the community services sector), UniSC’s Sexual Violence Research and Prevention Unit (SVRPU), will design and pilot a novel safeguarding training package to four community organisations that are in scope of the Reportable Conduct Scheme (RCS). The training aligns with the Child Safe Standards and directly supports workforce capability required under the RCS.
From a contextual prevention lens and grounded in Reynald’s (2010) Guardianship in Action model, this full-day, in-service training will emphasise responsibilities of capable guardians to notice, act, and uphold the rights of all children. It will also draw on lessons from other disciplines, such as aviation and health, that have tackled the “willingness to speak up” challenge through tools like graded assertiveness.
By embedding these skills and expectations, the training will bridge the gap between ‘knowing’ and ‘doing’. It will equip staff and leaders with strategies to enact their safeguarding responsibilities as active guardians, while fostering cultures where speaking up is normalised and encouraged. Engaging governance and leadership alongside frontline workers ensures accountability from the top, providing necessary foundations for cultural transformation across the organisation.
This training will be evaluated to enable refinement and scaling up of training delivery across Queensland and beyond.
Impact
This project addresses a critical safeguarding challenge—that training often tells staff what to look for and how to report concerns—but rarely tackles why they don’t act when concerns arise. Barriers like self-doubt, fear of consequences, and diffusion of responsibility undermine the willingness of staff to intervene, leaving children’s rights to protection and safety at risk (Lockitch et al., 2022). Until these barriers are addressed, knowledge and policy frameworks remain underutilised in practice. It is anticipated that this novel approach to raising concerns will improve guardianship capacity and timely reporting of concerns within youth-serving organisations.
Chief Investigators: McKillop, N. & Rayment-McHugh, S.
Research Members: Price, S. & Adams, D.
Funding Body: Queensland Family and Child Commission - Child Safeguarding Grants Program
Partner: Queensland Council of Social Service (QCOSS)
Funding year: 2026